WASHINGTON, May 24, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Two veteran Russian cosmonauts will venture outside the International Space Station for a spacewalk Wednesday, May 29, to retrieve science experiments and conduct maintenance on the orbiting laboratory. Live coverage of the activity will air on NASA Television and the agency’s website.

Expedition 59 Commander Oleg Kononenko and Flight Engineer Alexey Ovchinin are scheduled to open the hatch to the Pirs docking compartment airlock at 11:44 a.m. EDT on May 29 for a spacewalk expected to last 6.5 hours. Live coverage of the spacewalk will begin at 11:15 a.m.

Kononenko, who will be designated extravehicular crew member 1 (EV1), in the suit with blue stripes, and Ovchinin, who will be EV2, in the suit with red stripes, will install handrails on the Russian segment of the complex, retrieve science experiments from the Poisk module’s hull, and conduct maintenance work. The spacewalk will be the 217th in support of station assembly, maintenance and upgrades and the fourth outside the station this year.

This will be the fifth spacewalk in Kononenko’s career and the first for Ovchinin, who will become station commander next month. Kononenko is scheduled to return to Earth June 24, with crewmates Anne McClain of NASA and David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency, wrapping up a six-and-a-half-month mission living and working in space.

Keep up with the International Space Station and its research and crew at:

https://www.nasa.gov/station

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SOURCE NASA